She wasn't laughing.
Conall sobered up fairly quick, from there. Why would she joke about that? Well... she had never so much as mentioned marriage before. Never mind never having mentioned Mr. Pompous Prat to him before, not in that regard, not in any regard. He'd been away, he knew, and bad enough at keeping in touch even before the remoteness of Amazonian life, but she'd written letters, here and there. He'd had to know she was still well, and alive, and safe. Of course he'd expected she would be, in quaint, quiet Irvingly, but she had never given him the faintest cause to imagine she had met someone. Or that it was serious.
He supposed it was his fault if she'd not thought it worth mentioning to him. He had as good as written himself out of her life, when he'd let her go over to Scotland by herself. But even since she had been here, she hadn't said. He hadn't come across Mr. Healer since the encounter in the hospital, and - however important she had said he was, if he were that important to her, surely she would have...
If there was a niggling sense in Conall's head that people telling him things was not unconnected from the possible range of his reaction, it was clear drowned out by the shock of it. "Married?" He echoed gormlessly, his brow furrowed from the effort of digesting this. It was a long time since he had been so wrong-footed as this, and he had never digested things quickly to begin with.
"What d'you want to marry him for?"
Conall sobered up fairly quick, from there. Why would she joke about that? Well... she had never so much as mentioned marriage before. Never mind never having mentioned Mr. Pompous Prat to him before, not in that regard, not in any regard. He'd been away, he knew, and bad enough at keeping in touch even before the remoteness of Amazonian life, but she'd written letters, here and there. He'd had to know she was still well, and alive, and safe. Of course he'd expected she would be, in quaint, quiet Irvingly, but she had never given him the faintest cause to imagine she had met someone. Or that it was serious.
He supposed it was his fault if she'd not thought it worth mentioning to him. He had as good as written himself out of her life, when he'd let her go over to Scotland by herself. But even since she had been here, she hadn't said. He hadn't come across Mr. Healer since the encounter in the hospital, and - however important she had said he was, if he were that important to her, surely she would have...
If there was a niggling sense in Conall's head that people telling him things was not unconnected from the possible range of his reaction, it was clear drowned out by the shock of it. "Married?" He echoed gormlessly, his brow furrowed from the effort of digesting this. It was a long time since he had been so wrong-footed as this, and he had never digested things quickly to begin with.
"What d'you want to marry him for?"
